ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

The biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez lasted a minute and four seconds. It was so brief that the coveted casual fan that tuned in to FOX that night was left with these four lonely words -- wait, so that’s it?

On the other hand, the biggest heavyweight grand prix in history has stretched on for 15 long, meandering months. When it started, Strikeforce was still a rival of the UFC’s. Fedor Emelianenko was still formidable. Antonio Silva was constructed from body parts unknown. Fabricio Werdum was still a castoff, and Brett Rogers was free of legal isues. Josh Barnett had single handedly shut down Affliction, and Andrei Arlovski was still believable in fangs. You might remember that The Reem wasn’t yet viral, and Sergei Kharitonov was still unspellable.

It was a different era when the tournament started. In fact, Daniel Cormier, who is in the grand prix final against Barnett, was the eleventh man in the field of eight. How, exactly, did we get here?

Just about all the elite Zuffa heavyweights (and Roy Nelson) will be making appearances in a seven-day span in May. The roads to spring 2012 have been very different, but between May 19-26, everybody will finally get on the same page. Schedules will sync up for matchmaking, guys who have been cordoned off from each other will be at liberty to poke their fingers in whoever’s chest they please, and the division will become one massive melting pot.

It starts with Strikeforce’s heavyweight swan song in San Jose, Calif.; and ends with the UFC’s big man extravaganza in Las Vegas. On May 19, Cormier-Barnett goes down at long, long last, before one or both head to the UFC. On May 26, Frank Mir against Velasquez, Nelson versus Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem in a title fight with Junior dos Santos. Seven of those names belong in ESPN.com’s top 10 Power Rankings.

That’s a lot of firepower. Forget about the biggest fight or biggest grand prix in heavyweight history -- this will be the biggest single week of consolidating big men we’ve ever seen. And a week after that, we’ll be in a state of musical opponents, matching up winners with winners and losers with losers, and pitting re-emerging bodies like Shane Carwin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with each other.

What does it really mean, though? That we’ll finally have a division that captivates the imagination like the others, with a little more matchmaking wiggle room and a lot more overall possibility. It’s a relaunch of something, only this time something whole. Now the best heavyweights in the world are gathering under one roof. And as everybody knows, heavyweights have always carried a little extra clout in the minds of fight fans. The bigger the man, the more likely people are to stop what they’re doing to watch. It’s what happens when guys like Alistair Overeem walk around weighing two Ian McCall’s.

And Zuffa is smart to roll out this broadened division en masse like this.

If you’re going to reimagine something, do it big.

For all the marvels, one thing that UFC President Dana White has never been particularly good at is speaking for Dan Henderson. This was the case before Henderson bolted for Strikeforce, and it’s still the case right now.

And for as telegraphic as Henderson has been in his latest title quest -- in any division he can physically make from middleweight on up -- he apparently turns into a sphinx when it comes to everything besides. White says Hendo’s waiting for Jon Jones/Rashad Evans; Henderson says that isn't true, that he wants to stay busy. White says Hendo turned down a fight with Lyoto Machida; Henderson says that’s the buffet talking -- that fight was never on the table.

One of these guys needs to get a landline, because the phone calls keep breaking up.

So what’s the truth? Probably that neither party has any good ideas on what to do. Henderson is hovering as contender No. 1B in two divisions, with willingness to explore a third (heavyweight). Yet out of all those divisions, the UFC can’t find him an opponent. It’s problematic for a 41-year-old to hit these kind of wait-and-see impasses.

The sticking point is that Henderson wants a guy of similar projection, somebody with a couple of wins in a row and title momentum. Those are scarce right now in the divisions Henderson dabbles in. If Henderson could make welterweight, he’d find the kind of guys he’s talking about. People like Carlos Condit, who has an interim belt he doesn’t know what to do with. Or Jake Ellenberger, who fits that bill, too. To fight those types, Henderson would have to fast like a yogi for as long as it would take to wait out Jones/Evans in April. In other words, fat chance.

At light heavyweight (his obvious preference), there’s Machida, who’s lost three of his last four bouts. But Machida’s in his own purgatory -- and even then he’s become a pretty attractive “why not” proposition for people in better positions to consider. Henderson apparently is. And there’s also the winner of Ryan Bader/Quinton Jackson, which happens on Feb. 26 in Japan at UFC 144. If the UFC could book a quick turnaround fight with the winner there and jibe up the schedules to the Jones/Evans bout, Henderson would do it.

Again, though, that’s all a dice throw.

Yet aside from a Mauricio Rua rematch, that’s about all there is -- and a Rua rematch would feel too much like déjà vu. How haunting would it be to sign on for that fight just in time for Evans to go down with an injury, just like last time? Never mind the memorable fight they put on, had Henderson waited a week before signing on for Rua at UFC 139, he’d already have fought Jon Jones at UFC 140 in Toronto. That stays in Henderson’s mind as much as the experience with Rua.

So who else is there? Henderson has made it clear he doesn’t want to go back down to middleweight unless it’s for a rematch with Anderson Silva -- which leaves heavyweight, a division that Henderson would never balk at fighting in so long as it could be perceived as fan friendly. Unfortunately, not a lot of fights make sense there, either (read: virtually none).

Pat Barry has Lavar Johnson in his sights, and Cheick Kongo is fighting Mark Hunt in Japan. Stefan Struve? Doesn’t seem a big enough name for Henderson. All the elite names (Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez) have fights already. And besides, as Henderson said, “none of those guys wants to fight me, anyway.” Daniel Cormier stares at his phone most days saying, “why won’t you ring, why won’t you ring?” Shane Carwin is still a mile down the calendar from coming back. The only name that could be intriguing at all would be Fabricio Werdum, a smaller heavyweight who shares a distinction with Henderson of having defeated Fedor Emelianenko.

It would be a cameo, but in a world of very few alternatives, it might be enough to pique Henderson’s interest.

Otherwise, the options for a marquee fight are very limited for Henderson right now, and matchmaker Joe Silva and Dana White are throwing up their hands with what to do. So is Henderson. Will he wait? Will he fight? Seems like a good time to meet up, put some headshots on the wall, and throw some darts.

Or, at very least, for the UFC and Dan Henderson to have a talk.

Though Nick Diaz didn’t leave Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas with Saturday night’s most-coveted honor -- the UFC welterweight interim title -- he did go home with a nice consolation prize.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed on Monday that Diaz earned $200,000 for his five-round unanimous decision loss to Carlos Condit, making UFC 143's highest-paid participant.

Condit made $55,000 for the fight. Besides the bout purse, Condit pocketed an additional $55,000 for his victory, which gave him the welterweight interim belt and a shot at current 170-pound titleholder Georges St. Pierre.

Welterweight contender Josh Koscheck received a check for $146,000. He was paid $73,000 for participating on the card and another $73,000 for his split decision win over Mike Pierce -- who was paid $20,000 for the fight.

Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, who looked impressive en route to a unanimous decision over rugged Roy Nelson, took home $100,000. A win bonus was not part of Werdum's fight agreement. Nelson was paid $20,000.

Highly ranked bantamweight contender Renan Barao earned $22,000 -- he picked up $11,000 for the fight and an additional $11,000 after defeating Scott Jorgensen by unanimous decision. Jorgensen made $20,500 for his effort.

Rounding out the payment compensation for UFC 143 main card participants were middleweights Ed Herman ($62,000, which included a $31,000 win bonus) and Clifford Starks ($8,000). Herman won the fight by rear-naked choke in the second round.

Additionally, the UFC has officially asked the Nevada State Athletic Commission for the dates of May 26 and July 7. The promotion intends to hold events on those dates at MGM Grand Garden Arena. UFC has not yet revealed any details as to which fighters are slated to participate at those events.

Roy Nelson has summed up the importance of Saturday's UFC 143 clash with Fabricio Werdum, claiming he becomes one of the top four heavyweights in the world with a victory. More »

Alistair Overeem was a slight favorite heading into his fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 141. This made sense to him, as he has always been his own biggest booster (just check out any episode of “The Reem”). But plenty of people were scratching their heads at the perception of Overeem as a favorite, for no better reason than this: Lesnar had been fighting monsters for a short period of time in the UFC, while Overeem had been fighting imaginary monsters for a long period of time “elsewhere.”

In this case, it didn’t matter that Overeem’s unbeaten streak exceeded Lesnar’s tenure in the UFC by four months. Quality trumped quantity (and tawdry). Lesnar shopped on the boulevard, beating Frank Mir, Randy Couture and Shane Carwin. Overeem hit rummage sales, beating Fabricio Werdum, Todd Duffee and Tony Sylvester. Dana White himself discounted Overeem’s chances of keeping the fight standing, and, by extension, Overeem’s chances.

Well, we all saw what happened.

Overeem wasted no time in downing Lesnar with knees and kicks in the main event of UFC 141, the last of which crashed into his side and sent him squatting against the fence. The end followed, and it was anticlimactic -- it’s hard to feel satisfied when white flags appear so early in a fight of this magnitude. One way to look at it would be that it was an impressive victory for Overeem against a “real” opponent.

Yet from listening to people talk afterwards, what stood out was the way Lesnar lost, not so much the way Overeem won. And now there’s this temptation to lump Lesnar in with the laundry list of common folk that Overeem has knocked off in his run toward Junior dos Santos and the UFC belt. After all, knowing what we know now -- that Lesnar’s diverticulitis had taken its toll and reduced his athleticism, and that he had one foot out the door of the UFC before he ever stepped in at UFC 141 -- it’s easy to do.

Even Junior dos Santos was pointing out that he thought Lesnar fought a dumb fight, only he used the word “surprised.”

But the thing is, Overeem, who was widely accused of being overrated before Lesnar, begins to appear as just the opposite. He beat the guy standing in front of him, no matter if his training camp was a fiasco or not -- or if the fight was held in Japan or Dallas or Amsterdam. He won, which looks like concrete next to how people rate him.

Lesnar was his 11th victim in 12 fights, nine of which he finished in the first round. Overeem is a K-1 champion, and he has the Strikeforce heavyweight belt somewhere in his basement. These aren’t just notions, they’re real. Carrying that kind of résumé it should be impossible to tiptoe through the heavyweight ranks -- yet the Dutchman proceeds with a fairly light step. Even as he retires pay-per-view behemoths with sworded thoraxes.

Yet it wasn’t what Overeem did, it’s what Lesnar didn’t. That's the story of Overeem’s life.

And it’s time to revise that thinking. Four years is an eternity to go undefeated in the heavyweight division, no matter your global whereabouts, even if some of the guys you’ve beaten are named Lee Tae-Hyun. Some of Velasquez’s foes were named Brad Morris. In reverse dogma, fighting can be about the destination, not the journey. And Junior dos Santos is the new destination.

Beat JDS and, like the promotion he’s running with, that’s about as real as it gets -- and there’s no way to go about such business quietly when smashing such gauges.

So, Strikeforce is running a clearance on its once vaunted roster of heavyweights, and everyone between 207-266 pounds must go. What a difference a year makes.

In January of this year, the eight big guns on Strikeforce’s heavyweight roster stood on a New York City stage and looked like the most imposing ingredients to a nonfictional tournament since the Pride days. Even the alternates -- guys like Daniel Cormier, who defied odds by sneaking in and making it to the finals, and the mutton-chopped Chad Griggs -- were lively enough understudies.

The subtext of the grand prix? That Strikeforce had more depth in the most glamorous weight class than the UFC. It wasn’t the elephant in the room -- these were eight elephants in a room.

Dana White snickered. By spring, Zuffa bought Strikeforce. By summer, Alistair Overeem was on his way to the UFC. By winter, the wrecking ball assembly that made up the grand prix is being rapidly consolidated with the UFC's roster.

Zuffa is closing down the Strikeforce heavies to deepen the UFC’s. This, of course, is a good thing. The UFC’s heavyweight landscape will finally be on par with its other weight classes. How timely is that?

Not long ago (as in August), Brendan Schaub began to look like a top-flight heavyweight in the UFC. Not out of merit, but out of necessity. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, in the twilight of his career, shut things down. Then it was Matt Mitrione, before he was Jenga’d by Cheick Kongo. Even UFC newbie Stipe Miocic began to look like “promise,” well before he stepped in the Octagon. All this time we’ve been playing at the dearth.

But now reinforcements are arriving. Reigning Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem was first, and he’ll fight Brock Lesnar next week at UFC 141 in a title eliminator. Fabricio Werdum came next, and he’ll take on Roy Nelson at UFC 143. With the news of Strikeforce shutting its heavyweight division down in total, the carpet is rolling out for others now, too.

Lavar Johnson, who also fought in the WEC back in 2005 and 2006, has signed to fight Joey Beltran at UFC on FOX: "Davis vs. Evans." And MMA Weekly reported that Griggs -- who foiled overly idealistic plans for Bobby Lashley by obliterating him -- also signed a contract with the UFC, and will debut in the Octagon in 2012. Antonio Silva is expecting a call soon, and Sergei Kharitonov would like to join his training partner John Olav Einemo in the UFC.

Of all the grand prix participants, only a few will likely be left out -- Andrei Arlovski, the former UFC champion, who is on (what he hopes) a comeback trail; Brett Rogers, whose personal life is in shambles; and Fedor Emelienenko, whose management would like to skip the process and pencil in a date with Cain Velasquez.

Once Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett finish up the afterthought-ish grand prix in March, one or each will make their way to the UFC. (There is still a bonus heavyweight fight for the winner, which is short on details right now). When that happens, which could be as early as April or May of 2012, matchmaking in the UFC’s heavyweight division becomes more fun. With the reemergence of Frank Mir, there are now five legit bigs at the top -- Junior dos Santos, Velasquez, Overeem, Lesnar and Mir. Shane Carwin will be back in mid-2012, as well. Cusp fighters like Roy Nelson, Kongo and Travis Browne are still there, and green-but-emerging guys like Schaub and Mitrione are hovering.

But when you stack Werdum, Bigfoot Silva, Barnett, Cormier, Kharitonov, Shane del Rosario and Griggs in there? This thing about finding out who the best heavyweight in the world is becomes legit.

At the beginning of 2011, the questions centered around what happens if there wasn’t a partition between Strikeforce and the UFC, if guys like Overeem fought in the UFC? The partition is coming down, and we’ll find out soon enough.

MMA fighters aren’t neglecting their submission skills to please knockout-hungry fans. Rather, the best grapplers in the world can’t make their jiu-jitsu work in the cage any longer.

The increasing scarcity of submission finishes has had analysts and observers scratching their heads and asking: “why don't we see more submissions in the MMA big leagues?” The UFC and Strikeforce are home to some of the most talented grapplers on the planet, yet submission rates are plummeting faster than Fabricio Werdum's backside to the canvas.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu was the catalyst that kick-started MMA, the original reason that fighters found it necessary to cross train in multiple disciplines. When wrestlers learned submission holds and kickboxers developed takedown defense, it was because they had to avoid the danger of jiu-jitsu.

Once responsible for the birth of modern MMA, jiu-jitsu now seems little more than an afterthought.

The top grapplers in the world congregated in England this past weekend for the 2011 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. A bi-annual event, it's the most prestigious submission grappling tournament in the world and attracts fighters from across the globe. It was devised and is patroned by sheikhs from oil-rich (and, bizarrely, jiu-jitsu crazy) Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE.

Of the 100 competitors at this year's tournament, there were more than a few names familiar to MMA fans. Professional MMA fighters such as Dean Lister, Fabricio Werdum, Vinny Magalhaes, Jeff Monson, Rousimar Palhares and more showed that their ability to wrench limbs and crank necks is as sharp as ever.

Even to the untrained eye, the standard of grappling this year was spectacular -- impressive, dynamic stuff -- but it's left fans asking why they can't perform to the same level of success when in the cage.

There is a well-worn, yet very true maxim among MMA fighters: if you punch a black belt in the face enough times, he goes back to being a white belt.

Much like in the late 1990's when kickboxers learned how to sprawl and take out the fearsome wrestlers who were dominating the sport, modern MMA fighters have increased their submission awareness to a level where it has become exceedingly difficult for even the most talented grapplers to grab a submission.

Familiar names find familiar success in ADCC

Of the high-level mixed martial artists who entered the 2011 ADCC tournament, almost all hold black belts in BJJ. And they did very, very well. Dean Lister walked away with a gold medal, as did Vinny Magalhaes. Rousimar Palhares picked up second place in the 88kg category. This goes to show they're among the best grapplers in the world right now. But none are considered particularly spectacular MMA fighters, and all are a long way from a top-10 ranking.

Even former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza, considered by many to be one of the best pound-for-pound submission specialists in the world, only looks good on the ground against non-grapplers. He struggled with a strong wrestler with good striking in Luke Rockhold, losing his belt in the process.

The current consensus is that the best grappler on the planet is Marcelo Garcia, an affable and curly-haired Brazilian now living in New York City. He took his fourth ADCC world title on Sunday in amazing fashion, practically walking through the competition. But he bombed out atrociously in his sole foray into MMA, a second round TKO loss to an unheralded 10-4 fighter in 2007.

One-trick ponies just aren’t cutting it

Werdum, Palhares, Lister ... All amazing grapplers who look pedestrian in the cage. Why?

Because -- as obvious as it sound -- MMA is not grappling. As highly skilled as these fighters are, many of them enter MMA relatively late in their athletic careers. They've usually had a good few years’ worth of jiu-jitsu competition under their belt, with the associated wear and tear on the body. Starting an MMA career in their late 20s doesn't leave them much time to develop the skills to hang with even mediocre strikers with half-decent takedown defense.

Case in point: Roger Gracie. He's achieved more in jiu-jitsu than any other man alive, taking home an unprecedented 10 grappling world titles. Yet he had his clock cleaned inside of one round by Muhammed Lawal before executing a single jiu-jitsu move. His awkward stand-up is typical of jiu-jitsu fighters, an affliction that has plagued submission specialists since the very beginning of MMA.

It's not that guys aren't capable of performing jiu-jitsu tactics in an MMA environment; there are simply factors in an MMA fight that prevent this from taking place. There are, of course, the practical limitations of grappling in a cage. Grapplers are used to referees calling a time-out and dragging them back into the center of the mat every few minutes, and lengthy breaks during matches are not uncommon. The transition to getting mercilessly and relentlessly stuck against a wire mesh cage for five long minutes is a harsh one.

But perhaps the most restrictive factor for grapplers in MMA is the gloves. MMA gloves may only weigh between 4-6 ounces, but the layers of gauze and tape underneath the pads make them bulky and cumbersome when jockeying for position. Try slipping your fist into an MMA mitt and then sliding it underneath a chin for a chokehold -- it's harder than it sounds.

When most MMA fighters were still relative novices to the ground game, the gloves weren’t an issue. The aforementioned submission wizard Marcelo Garcia is known for his amazing ability to secure chokes from any position, yet he spent an entire round on the back of the very average Korean fighter Dae Won Kim and was unable to find his go-to move. A little submission defense goes a long way in the cage.

The next wave will be more complete

Contrary to what you might think, jiu-jitsu is not done for in MMA. We'll still see plenty of flashy grappling moves in the Octagon and elsewhere -- it'll just not be the elite-level grapplers doing them.

Take a look at some of the young talent in the UFC. 26-year-old Nate Diaz is keeping the Gracie style of jiu-jitsu alive in the Octagon with 10 of his 14 victories by tap out. Former WEC lightweight champ Ben Henderson fought in the recent BJJ World Championships in Los Angeles, placing a respectable third in the brown belt division. And of course Jon Jones, the blueprint for modern mixed martial artists, finished off Quinton Jackson with a classic rear-naked choke.

Even though Fabricio Werdum survived 15 minutes with Alistair Overeem and submitted Fedor Emelianenko, he’s very much part of the old school of jiu-jitsu fighters in MMA. Instead, look for the new generation of versatile athletes, the youngsters who started mixing the arts in their teens. With equal parts ability in the stand-up, wrestling and ground games, they have the well-rounded skill sets that will enable them to seamlessly transition from range to range and style to style, but without the years of bad habits fostered by competition in other arts.

Is the great Fedor Emelianenko finished?

If he loses to Dan Henderson on Saturday, many people will suggest that, yes, the Russian heavyweight is a shell of the man who stood as mixed martial arts' king last decade.

To this I say: perhaps not.

First, can we agree that there's no shame to be found in Emelianenko's two-fight losing streak? Not if facts about mixed martial artists losing, even in the harshest ways, apply to the Russian in the same way they apply to every other star in the sport.

Fabricio Werdum, one of the best submission fighters in the heavyweight division, caught Emelianenko in a mistake. So be it.

Antonio Silva is skilled and experienced and owned a 50-pound weight advantage over the former Pride champion. Plus, let's not forget that after two rounds of being treated like ground chuck, Emelianenko stood in his corner, ready and willing to come out for another round. He was not, in a broad sense, a beaten man.

As for Henderson, by any objective or subjective standard he deserves to be ranked among the top five fighters to have competed in this sport. So, no, no shame in falling to him if it happens.

I fancy myself a pragmatist, thus the notion of Emelianenko continuing with his career regardless of what occurs in the cage Saturday makes no sense -- even if it makes Hot Buttoning less fun.

Therefore, a stipulation or two:

1. A cold-cocked knockout.

Henderson's right hand has put down many fighters. Emelianenko has never been knocked out. If the American becomes the first fighter to KO Emelianenko, and does so viciously, then I could be persuaded.

2. Desire.

I'm not in the camp that sees Emelianenko as unmotivated. Intransigent in his training habits, sure. But lacking desire? Don't think so. If I'm wrong about that, and Emelianenko seems genuinely disinterested in fighting, then he shouldn't need to wait -- as he said he will when it comes to his career -- for God to determine what' next. He should simply pack it up, seclude himself in Stary Oskol and live the ordained life he appears to want.

No one would begrudge Emelianenko if he left, at least no one with a vested interest.

Should Emelianenko walk away? If his health isn't in doubt, and his desire remains, then of course he shouldn't hang 'em up.

It’s enough that Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko are facing each other to make the Strikeforce card on July 30 (Showtime at 10 p.m. ET) worth watching. But for those needing an additional reason to tune-in, how’s this: It could be Emelianenko’s final fight.

The former Pride heavyweight champion, who has dropped each of his past two bouts (to Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva), isn’t ruling out the possibility of calling it quits if he falls to Henderson.

“I don’t know; we’ll see,” Emelianenko said during a Strikeforce conference call on Thursday to promote the bout. “Everything will be known after the fight. It’s better to talk about that and answer that question after the fight.

“What I have learned is that I can thank God for all of my successes and all of my failures, all of my good times and all of my bad times. I’m thankful to Him for all that he’s given me.”

Despite his recent disappointments inside the cage, Emelianenko (31-3-0) still believes in his fighting abilities and expects to end his two-bout skid.

“[Losing] hasn’t affected my confidence at all,” Emelianenko said. “If God has given us a certain path for my life, then I have to go down that path and feel confident about it.”

Faith is helping Emelianenko get through his recent difficulties in the cage, but Henderson has a strong belief that he will leave this fight victorious.

Henderson has closely watched Emelianenko’s two recent setbacks and spotted mistakes in the former champion’s approach. If Emelianenko has not corrected those flaws, Henderson plans to exploit them.

“Against Werdum, it seemed he got a little cocky with his submission defense, thinking he wouldn’t get submitted,” Henderson said. “Everybody can get caught, I guess.

“With Silva, he was a little bit out of shape; the size definitely got to him. Silva just hung out on top of him and didn’t let him move that whole second round. But no matter if he’s in shape or out of shape, he’s still dangerous. Anybody who has their back to the wall is definitely more dangerous.”

One thing is for sure: Retirement isn’t an option for the 40-year-old Henderson, whose contract with Strikeforce will be completed after this fight.

No matter the outcome of this fight, Henderson’s wants to defend his light heavyweight title.

“I don’t have any plans on going anywhere,” said Henderson, who will take a pro record of 27-8-0 into the cage against Emelianenko. “I’d like to defend that Strikeforce [light heavyweight] belt and go from there. But we have to figure everything out at the same time.”

For Henderson, this fight marks another chapter in a storied career. His book, however, appears far from being completed.

The same can't be said about Emelianenko. We will learn on July 30 if his story has reached its conclusion.

Saturday’s rematch between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum went from highly anticipated to largely reviled over the course of its 15-minute duration.

Overeem advanced to the semifinals of Strikeforce’s 2011 heavyweight grand prix on the strength of a tepid unanimous decision, while Werdum was criticized by fans and pundits for repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to pull guard throughout the fight.

Speaking Tuesday to Sherdog.com, Werdum revealed that he was shocked at his own poor performance and apologized to MMA fans for the fight.

“I’m still trying to figure out what happened to me that night,” Werdum told Sherdog.com. “It wasn’t me fighting. What I did was awful, ugly to see. I want to apologize to Brazilian fans and MMA fans. I didn’t listen to my corner. Rafael [Cordeiro, Kings MMA leader] was telling me to keep striking, not to try to pull guard, but I didn’t do that. I wasn’t listening to him, wasn’t focusing on the fight the way that I should’ve been. It wasn’t a good fight for me or Overeem.”

Werdum had only two chances to work on the ground, and the 33-year-old failed to submit Overeem on both occasions. However, the Brazilian could have had more opportunities if some of his many takedown attempts worked. In spite of his inability to get the fight where he wanted it, “Vai Cavalo” refused to say his grappling and wrestling skills weren’t polished, and related his surprise with how strong his opponent was.

“I felt he was much, much stronger than me,” Werdum said of Overeem. “I tried to take him down many times, with double-legs, single-legs... but it was like hitting a wall. He was impressively strong. It wasn’t a lack of training. I worked hard with Mark Munoz, I took down everyone at the gym, but it was different in the fight. I just tried to pull him to my guard after I failed on my takedown attempts. I gotta get stronger to keep fighting at the highest level of heavyweight.”

Dissatisfied with his performance in the bizarre fight, Werdum now looks forward to a potential third meeting with Overeem, whom Werdum submitted during the 2006 Pride Fighting Championships openweight grand prix.

“Now we’re tied,” said Werdum. “I hope someday I can meet him again, to see how we break this tie. Maybe Saturday wasn’t my time to win. I thought I was 100-percent, but I wasn’t. I’ll work to fix my mistakes, because I want to be the Strikeforce or UFC champion.

“I’m sad because I know I could have won that fight,” Werdum lamented. “I showed a lot of improvement in my striking game, but I wanted to do some jiu-jitsu with him also. Everyone calls for me to strike, and I go. When I call people to my guard, they never go. I still want to see the K-1 champ, the guy who knocks everyone out in the first round. He didn’t show much, didn’t hit me hard enough to knock me down. I landed more punches and my mistake was to try so many times to pull him to my guard. I believe I lost to him, and not that he defeated me.”

Sometime this fall, in the tournament semifinals, Overeem will rematch another Brazilian who defeated Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva. After what he saw in Saturday’s fight, Werdum believes his countryman will defeat the Dutchman and advance to the final.

“‘Bigfoot’ will beat him,” asserted Werdum. “I thought Overeem was going to show more, hit harder, but he didn’t. I suffered a lot because he’s much stronger than me, but Silva is naturally stronger. If [Silva] has a good camp and gets prepared well, he’ll take this fight for sure.”

Men who have recently fought and fared well against Fedor Emelianenko have all suffered significant setbacks following their encounter with the Russian heavyweight. On Saturday, Fabricio Werdum, the first to defeat Emelianenko, became the latest to fall victim to the “Curse of Fedor.” More »

DALLAS -- Alistair Overeem has titles -- plenty of them. At the moment, he owns belts in Strikeforce, Dream and a kickboxing title in K-1.

Titles he’s got. What he wants are challenges. And the future looks bright as far as those are concerned.

Widely considered a favorite to win the Strikeforce Grand Prix, Overeem (34-11) is poised for the most remarkable run of his career if he’s able to keep winning.

While his focus rests solely on defeating Fabricio Werdum Saturday, he paid close attention to the recent booking of a welterweight fight between UFC and Strikeforce champions Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.

Whichever heavyweight emerges victorious from this Grand Prix will obviously have a lot of steam behind him -- more than likely enough to set up another crossover fight.

“[The buyout] was good news because crossover fights can happen now,” Overeem told ESPN.com. “We’ve already seen it. If people want to see me fight against the UFC champion, that is what’s going to happen. It sounds very logical to me.”

Overeem seems to have assessed the situation well.

Although UFC president Dana White has frequently referred to "hurdles" that exist in making crossover fights, co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently told ESPN.com that there are no concrete roadblocks from doing so.

The promotion will honor its contract with Showtime, a deal that offers the network a series of options to continue until early 2014, and therefore doesn’t want to strip it of its best assets.

That said, it won’t stop the promotion from putting together the big fights fans ask for.

“There’s nothing in the deal that prevents us from moving fighters back and forth,” Fertitta said. “But we don’t want to do anything that would hurt the Strikeforce brand.

“The major benefit of the deal is it benefits the consumer because they get the fights they want. If it makes sense and we think it’s big enough, we’ll do it. In the case of GSP and Diaz, I couldn’t go a day without getting hundreds of people on Twitter asking for that fight.”

As far as Strikeforce champions go, no path seems as laid out to a crossover fight in the UFC than Overeem’s.

The Dutch fighter says he’s prepared for the toughest string of opponents in his career.

To him, the talent level of the Grand Prix even matches what he faced in the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix, during which he fought Vitor Belfort, Igor Vovchanchyn and Mauricio Rua within a four-month period.

“I think the level of competition is the same as when I fought the top guys in the world in 2005,” Overeem said. “There were more of them in that; 16. Now there are eight. But I think the main difference is I have improved.”

While Overeem has faced some of the world’s best at other weights, match-ups with that type of competition have eluded him at heavyweight.

That ends with his fight against Werdum this weekend and, if he proves to be as good as advertised, shouldn’t be a problem moving forward.

“I wanted a [Fedor Emelianenko] fight for a long time and it didn’t happen,” Overeem said. “Werdum was injured last year so I couldn’t fight him. I’ve had these fights at heavyweight but they didn’t happen for one reason or another.

“This tournament is a way to do that and do more fights in the United States. I’m focused on that and then after, we can talk about more possibilities.”

Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem looks to avenge a 2006 submission loss to Fabricio Werdum when he faces the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in the promotion's heavyweight grand prix quarterfinals on Saturday in Dallas. A win there could cement the Dutchman as one of MMA's premier heavyweights. More »

Alistair Overeem meets Fabricio Werdum in the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix quarterfinals on Saturday in Dallas. Werdum submitted "The Demolition Man" under the Pride Fighting Championships banner in 2006. Will history repeat itself? More »

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Less than two weeks away from a huge showdown against Alistair Overeem in Dallas, top-3 ranked heavyweight Fabricio Werdum can't avoid focusing some of his attention on Vancouver this weekend when Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin vie for No. 1 contender status in the UFC.

The 33-year-old Brazilian, who is more comfortable speaking Spanish than Portuguese after living in Spain for 10 years, said he's rooting hard for dos Santos to defeat Carwin at UFC 131. This isn't just about pulling for his countryman, either.

"I hope Cigano wins his fight," Werdum said through a translator after a frenetic training session at Kings MMA. "I was beating him when we fought. I have a big dream that Cigano wins the UFC belt and I win the Strikeforce Grand Prix and we fight to see who's the best. It's going to be revenge for me."

Werdum (14-4-1) has won three in a row since dos Santos stopped him with punches in 2008, a loss that drove him from the ranks of the UFC into Strikeforce. The long-limbed Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion is best known, of course, for being the first man to legitimately defeat Fedor Emelianenko when he tapped the Russian with a triangle choke in June '10. Almost a full year later, after surgery to repair a damaged elbow and delays brought on by Strikeforce's scheduling quirks, "Vai Cavalo" gets Overeem, the current Strikeforce champion, in a nontitle bout that could propel him into the semifinals of the tournament against Antonio Silva.

"The best heavyweight in the world will be decided when the winner of the Strikeforce Grand Prix and the UFC champion unify the titles," Werdum said. "There are a lot of tough fighters in UFC and a lot of tough fighters in Strikeforce. Now you can put them together and see who's the best."

After Zuffa made a welterweight fight between Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz and UFC king Georges St. Pierre, the expectation among fans and media is for the Las Vegas promotional juggernaut to do something similar at heavyweight, however UFC president Dana White reiterated on Thursday he's unsure how the organization will handle the division once the tournament is complete.

Werdum clearly has his preference.

The winner between dos Santos (12-1) and Carwin (12-1) is expected to challenge Cain Velasquez (9-0) for the UFC belt before the end of the year.